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The Pas Huskies
The Pas Huskies were a junior and intermediate team. The junior team was an independent (non-league) team in the 1934-35 MJHL Season. The Pas Huskies (NJHL) was a junior team in the NorMan Junior Hockey League from 1978 until 1985. The Huskies men's version was an Intermediate 'A'-level team in the 1950s, '60s, and early 1970s. The men's Intermediate 'A' Huskies played in the CRVHL (Carrot River Valley Hockey League) in the 1950s and early 1960s. The league included teams from Saskatchewan such as the Kinistino Tigers, Tisdale Monarchs, Hudson Bay Junction, Nipawin Hawks and Melville Millionaires. Later on in the 1960s, the Huskies played in the Pre-Cambrian League. Teams included the Flin Flon Junior 'B' Bombers, Snow Lake North Stars, Thompson Hawks, and the Thompson Nickle Kings. A big leader and long-time star on the Huskies was captain Claude (Cobra) Kozik who scored over 500 goals in his Husky career. He centered a slick-passing, high-scoring line which included Doug White and Clifford 'Ticky' King. Other notables included coach Hal Wells, goalies Tommy French, Tommy Suchy & Don Black, Merv Patterson, Larry Pearson, the heady Roland "Goldy" Goldstrand (ex-Wembley Lion star in the British National League who later coached the Huskies), Red Armstrong, Ron Cox, Jack Giles, Lynn Marlowe, band of brothers Ted, Jerry and Paul Rock, Jack Kennedy (father of current Ontario politician Gerard Kennedy), Willie Ducharme, Richard 'Itchy' King, Steffy Moran (who was blind in one eye but yet was a terrific stickhandler. Wait... what?) and the Mutz brothers, Dave and Len. The smooth-skating, slick passing, rock-hard Giles once scored two goals—both within the last two minutes of regulation time—from the red line on scorching, unscreened slapshots in a provincial playoff game against the Winkler Royals. Jack's son''' Curt Giles was a dazzling skater at age three and later had a good career in the NHL with Quebec and Minnesota. The Pas native '''Murray Anderson, however, was the first known locally-born player to make the NHL, with Washington Capitals in the 1970s. Warren Harrison, younger brother of ex-Huskie Roger Harrison, was drafted 53rd overall by the Oakland Seals in the 1969 NHL amateur draft. One of the most naturally talented native sons from The Pas was soft-spoken Norm Engen, whose huge hockey and baseball potential was abruptly dashed in his mid-teens by a knee-on-goalpost collision in a rink-rat pickup game in the old, cold arena on First Ave. Normie had seemed destined for a pro career in either hockey or baseball—he was a promising pitcher—or both. Edgar Rivalin, another top local talent, played left wing with the Huskies (displacing Ticky King occasionally on the top line with Kozik and White) as a 15-year-old in 1960-61. The next season Rivalin went on to junior hockey in Winnipeg as a hard hitting, shooting-and-punching defenceman with St. Boniface Canadiens, where he played two seasons and then won a CIAU championship with the star-studded 1965 U of M Bisons, where he was named to the second all-star team on defence before earning a four year hockey scholarship to Michigan Tech. Rivalin also wielded a potent bat playing left field at age 16 for The Pas Teepees in the Polar Baseball League, once notoriously spiking Flin Flon Stylers' Mel Pearson, the sometime New York Ranger winger, in a close play at first base. Accidentally, of course. One of the contributors to this article was once spiked at first base by Al Hamilton (see below)... but doesn't recall any apology from Big Al ;-) Teams would travel to other towns for a weekend series in CRVHL league play. Since there was no TV in The Pas in those days, on road trips the Huskies would gear up in their hotel rooms, except for the skates, on Saturday night and watch as much of the telecast as they could, before leaving for their own game. The rinks were small, unheated and had only natural ice. High scores like 10-8, 12-6, etc were not uncommon. The Sunday afternoon games were often somewhat rougher than the previous evening; someone's feathers were likely to have been ruffled from the earlier encounter. Especially if "Beast" Beskel was in the lineup for the Nipawin Hawks. Doug White famously threw his half-lemon at Beskel from the Huskies' bench during one memorable donnybrook. He missed. This was only slightly less hilarious, in Huskies' lore, than Ticky King, who—in the midst of a frustrating, fruitless Sunday afternoon—caught a waist-high, offside backpass outside the blueline and promptly fired a sidearm strike past the bemused opposition goalie 60 feet away. Two minutes for closing the hand. And too funny. On yet another fine Sunday afternoon, a particularly irate Husky fan threw a number of frozen oranges at a certain opposition player who had gone all-out 'Slapshot' and kicked a couple of Huskies—out of sight of the referee—the previous evening. And a contributor to this article can remember, as a child in the mid-fifties, seeing players actually punch referees in the face if incensed enough by a call. The Huskies also hosted junior and touring oldtimers' teams en route to or returning from Flin Flon, including the Prince Albert Mintos when'' future New York Ranger '''Jim Neilson' was their captain and star; the Flin Flon Bombers when 15 year-old Al Hamilton was a perennial five-game callup before he captained the Edmonton Oil Kings to a Memorial Cup win and went on to NHL and WHA careers with New York, Buffalo and Edmonton. Doug Bentley '''(former NHL scoring champion and All-Star with Chicago, and member of the famed 'Pony Line' alongside his brother Max and Bill Mosienko), as coach of the visiting Saskatoon Quakers, laced 'em up one night and dazzled Husky fans—with his turn-on-a-dime skating, flat-out speed, and deft puck handling—and frustrated Husky players. Melville Jr. Millionaires came to town with future Philadelphia Flyer Bill Flett', junior scoring king '''Ed Lawson', speedster Gerry Korp and future Oakland Seals 50-goal man''' Dave Parenteau'. '''Danny Johnson'—who went on to a strong minor pro career, a couple of seasons in the NHL, and a good career in the WHA (including captain of the Winnipeg Jets)—came to town with the Flin Flon Jr. Bombers. Dave Rusnell '''of the world champton Trail Smoke Eaters played there with Prince Albert seniors. In 1970 the Flin Flon Jr Bombers landed in town, locked & loaded with the likes of future NHLers '''Reggie Leach, Gene Carr, Blaine Stoughton, and Chuck Arnason. The Huskies were utterly carpet-bombed to the tune of 10-2, but it would have been much worse had Huskies' goaltender Don Black been anything short of spectacular: He stopped 17 of 20 shots in the first period alone. Overall, Black faced a blizzard of pucks, and wound up stopping 40 of 50 shots on the night. Coach Pat Ginnell suited up and potted two goals. Gene Carr contributed a pair, with singles going to John Stewart, Rick Brownley, Chuck Arnason, Blaine Stoughton, Reggie Leach, and Ray Butterworth. Robbie Leguilloux and former professional Gord Redahl scored for the home team, with Leguilloux's marker coming on a spectacular end-to-end-rush. Claude Kozilk and Paul Rock assisted on Redahl's goal. The aforementioned Mr. Redahl did indeed play for the Huskies, in 1970-71, freshly arrived from the professional Denver Spurs (WHL) in 1969-70. Redahl had played in the old minor pro WHL—mostly with the Winnipeg Warriors—but also had an 18-game stint with the Boston Bruins in 1959. In the WHL, Redahl made the fop 10 in the scoring race with 32 goals for the Victoria Maple Leafs in the 1964-65 season. By the time Redahl arrived in The Pas, the Huskies had left the defunct CRVHL and were playing in the Pre-Cambrian League. Gord finished second in league scoring that year with 24 goals and 28 assists in 16 games. Teammates Robbie Leguilloux and Paul Rock were first and fourth, respectively. Leguilloux set a league record by scoring nine goals in the last game of the regular season, a 20-3 victory over the Snow Lake North Stars... the score clearly indicating that the back of the Stars net surely must have had a sign saying the puck stops here . The Snow Lake goalie evidently had second-degree burns on the back of his neck, by way of the goal light flashing so often—thus matching his face, by now crimson red in embarrassment. In the same game, Redahl banged in 3 goals and collected 6 assists. The Huskies won the 1968-69 Manitoba Intermediate 'A' Championship. Many of the Huskies listed above were also members of the The Pas Teepees baseball club, Polar League Champions in 1959. TheTeepees 1959-1964 team subsequently entered the Manitoba Hall of Fame, in 2005. ---- R.I.P Huskies: Claude Kozik, Jack Giles, Roland Goldstrand, Willie Ducharme, Roger Harrison Other: Danny Johnson (1944-1993) Category:Canadian ice hockey teams Category:Manitoba Junior Hockey League Category:Manitoba Intermediate Hockey